Yamaha WorldSBK rider explains “worst feeling ever” at Portimao

Andrea Locatelli was a WorldSBK race winner in 2025, but his 2026 season has started terribly, in comparison, and the Italian says he experienced the “worst feeling ever” at the Portuguese Round last weekend (27–29 March).

Locatelli’s results so far in 2026 do not make for especially pretty reading from the Italian’s perspective.

13-14-5 in Australia, then 12-11-9 in Portimao where the Yamaha worked a bit better in general. 

The top-five in Australia looks good, but then that was a wet race. Ninth in Portimao looks like improvement at the end, but there were several crashes ahead of Locatelli in Race 2 last weekend.

Of course, racing is about results, but the context around the numbers is also meaningful.

Compare Locatelli’s results to those of his new teammate, Xavi Vierge, through two rounds. The Spaniard didn’t score a point in Australia because of technical problems and crashes, but in Portugal went 6-7 in the first two races before crashing in Race 2 and finishing 14th.

Additionally, Locatelli’s average finish last year, excluding the one DNF he scored in Czechia, was sixth. This year he’s achieved better than that on one occasion, in that one wet race, and his average finish this year even including that is only 10.6. Exclude the wet race and include only dry races, and his average drops to 11.8.

“Basically I feel struggling,” Andrea Locatelli told WorldSBK.com after Race 2 in Portimao.

“Where is the point? It’s tricky to say. Why it’s happening? So difficult to find it. 

“The worst feeling ever it’s on the tyre, so this is obviously something that we cannot control really well; but for sure we will, with the setup, try to find a solution to try that [...] starts to work better. 

“But this is what’s missing with respect to last year. But we need [to] look forward, find a solution, and I hope that we can. 

“This was the main [thing], but I want to keep believing that we can find a solution.”

The next track on the World Superbike calendar is Assen, where Locatelli picked his his first win in the championship last year when Nicolo Bulega retired from the lead of Race 2 with technical problems.

Locatelli emphasised the importance of maintaining belief in himself and his team ahead of the Dutch Round, despite his current difficulties that currently leave him 11th in the riders’ standings – albeit as the top Yamaha rider after Locatelli’s point-less Australian Round.

“It’s a good track,” Locatelli said of Assen. “It was also here, so I always believe that in every weekend we can do well. 

“We know that also in the past it was happening: in some weekends we were struggling, and then we was finding a solution quite quick. 

“So, let’s say a bit of ‘fingers crossed’ – that is not so nice to say, but in any case we need to believe a bit on this, believing in ourselves, believe in the team that we keep working hard, and try to do our best also there.”